Roman Sionis (Arkhamverse)
Roman Sionis was born into wealth and privilege to abusive and neglectful parents. After his parents died in a suspicious fire, Sionis inherited their company, but ran it into the ground. Though his company was saved by a buyout from Bruce Wayne, Sionis saw the buyout as a blow to his personal honor, and resented Wayne. For all his failings as a businessman, Sionis showed a natural aptitude for crime. Fashioning a skull mask from his parents' ebony coffin lid, he assumed the mantle of the Black Mask, and formed his own gang, the False Face Society. In time, he became powerful enough to challenge Carmine Falcone for primacy in Gotham City's underworld. By the time Wayne took up the mantle of the Batman, Sionis had control of Gotham Merchants Bank and half of the police on his payroll, including Commissioner Loeb. While Sionis was preoccupied with Batman, who had been targeting his operations, and a turf war with the Penguin, his girlfriend, Tiffany Ambrose, began being stalked by someone calling himself the Joker. He assured her that Joker was little more than a minor nuisance. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as Joker followed Tiffany to their safehouse, ambushing her and Roman. Sionis was forced to kill Tiffany, then was hidden away in his own steel mill as the Joker stole his Black Mask persona, using it to hire assassins to kill Batman. The Joker faked the murder of Sionis so he could break into the Gotham Merchants Bank. Sionis was with the Joker inside the bank vault when he revealed himself to Batman. Sionis was taken back to the steel mill with Joker. There, Batman found him and freed him. Later on, he rendezvoused with Facers still loyal to him, and plotted to revive his empire with a series of drug deals. After Batman destroyed all of Sionis's drug canisters, he confronted Batman inside the old church in Old Gotham, where he was soundly defeated. Sionis swore vengeance, promising Batman that no matter how many times he was captured, he would always find a way out. At some point later, he recovered the mask stolen by Joker and challenged Batman again, resulting in a disastrous encounter which left the mask's impression permanently burnt onto his skin. Sionis spent an unspecified amount of time in Arkham Asylum, where he became a patient of Penelope Young. His original mask was mounted on the wall of her office. As detailed in one of the Riddler's riddles entitled "Black Mask", Sionis was one of the first inmates at Arkham City. Sionis was also the first inmate to break out. Using explosives taken from the Penguin, Black Mask exploded a hole in the wall right behind his old Sionis factory. Hugo Strange, however, was not happy with his new super prison's record already tarnished. Strange sent all of his TYGER guards after Black Mask and he was eventually captured in his own meat packing company. Later, while holed up in his meat packing factory, Robin has silently taken out all of Black Mask's henchmen. When Black Mask see all his henchmen taken out he makes a mad dash to the train that is passing by. Robin, close behind, hops on the train and battles the rest of Black Mask's henchmen. At the end of the train, Robin battles Black Mask in hand-to-hand combat before knocking him out cold and stopping the train. Using the knowledge from the "Black Mask" riddle, it is implied that the TYGER guards find him unconscious and beaten after his encounter with Robin and take him back to Arkham City for his second time. As Bruce Wayne is being admitted to Arkham City, Black Mask is seen as one of the criminals being transferred into the cell block. Sionis is busy fending off the TYGER forces with a chair; however, he is eventually detained by the guards. Using this to his advantage, Joker was able to capture Sionis Industries and it is quickly modified into Joker's Funland, Joker's base of operations in Arkham City. With the growing violence in Arkham City as the three primary gangs (Joker's, Penguin's and Two-Face's gangs) fought for control over the city, Black Mask secretly allied himself with the Riddler and slowly built up his forces for his plans to retake Arkham City in the confusion. Red Hood interrupted an arms deal between Black Mask and Penguin's men. At a weapon's storage unit, Red Hood interrogated one of Black Mask's last men standing, who revealed Black Mask's location in Downtown Gotham. Red Hood fought his way through Black Mask's men and eventually got to the crime boss himself, who was at Red Hood's mercy. Black Mask begged Red Hood to let him go, even suggesting Red Hood tell him where to go. However, Red Hood instead threw the Black Mask out of a window, plunging to his apparent death. | Powers = | Abilities = * : Black Mask, in the challenge mission "Freight Train," fights the player like a normal henchman. Although, Black Mask is able to fend off any attempts to quickly take him down like ground takedowns and combo takedowns. * * * * | Weaknesses = * : Sionis has heart issues and requires a pacemaker to stay alive. It can be controlled remotely and, as demonstrated by Batman, can be used against him by rapidly accelerating his heart. | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = * Black Mask was voiced by Nolan North in Batman: Arkham City and by Brian Bloom in the following games. | Trivia = * Black Mask is the third villain able to be fought in normal freeflow combat. The first two are Zsasz and Joker. Sionis then followed by the fourth fightable villain: Howard Branden. ** Black Mask is the second villain to be invincible to an immediate takedown. The first is Joker. ** Black Mask holds the record for most freeflow fights against the player. He can be fought three times: as part of the Robin DLC in ''Arkham City'', as part of his Most Wanted mission in ''Arkham Origins'' and as part of the Red Hood Story Pack in ''Arkham Knight''. * Black Mask has had the most inconsistent hair color of all of Batman's villains. In Arkham Asylum, he was recorded having no hair. In Arkham City, a patch of brown hair can be seen coming out from under his mask. In Arkham Origins, his hair is black. | DC = | Wikipedia = | Recommended = | Links = }} Category:2009 Character Debuts Category:Arkham Asylum inmates